


Mr Lauda

by SilverLynxx



Series: Rush Prompt Fics [3]
Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: AU, M/M, Prompt Fic, Single Parent!James, Teacher!Niki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-17 12:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1387096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLynxx/pseuds/SilverLynxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Mr Hunt, I presume,” the words are richly accented and without an ounce of doubt about who he is addressing. James decides then that his name sounds very appealing when said with such an accent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt by [Theflirtmeister](http://theflirtmeister.tumblr.com) on Tumblr for NurseryTeacher!Niki and Parent!James.

“Hurry Daddy, we gonna to be late!”

“I’m coming I’m coming!” James insists, cramming a messily made sandwich into Freddie’s _Wacky Races_ lunchbox before he gives in to the tugging on his trouser leg. “Quick! Last one to the car makes dinner!” James calls, and laughs as he jogs after the delighted squeals tearing down the hallway and out the front door.

He manages to assemble them in the mini and then at last they’re on route to Freddie’s nursery. Freddie babbles a constant stream of disjointed thoughts and observations in the passenger seat and James only half-listens as he drives. He hums and ahs in the right places regardless.

“Right, come on Champ,” James huffs, hoisting Freddie out the car and into the school building. He walks the familiar corridors of the primary school the nursery is attached to, and grins as he braces his hands on the doorframe of Freddie’s classroom and leans in with his most charming smile.

“Sorry, Molly darling, it’s my fault this ti-“ James stops as he realises the teacher crouching beside a child’s desk isn’t the slender and rather buxom Miss Molly Williams. Instead a young man in a brown turtleneck, with a rather prominent overbite and an even more prominent scowl, stands up and approaches James. The blond can’t help but liken the man to a rat.

“Mr Hunt, I presume,” the words are richly accented and without an ounce of doubt about who he is addressing. James decides then that his name sounds very appealing when said with such an accent.

“I - yes, James, James Hunt” the Brit smiles, intrigued. “Is Molly unwell?” He hears Freddie tut disapprovingly at his knee.

“Daaad, I says _ages_ ago, Miss Williams gone!”  
  
“How long was 'ages ago'?”

“Park day.”  
  
Right, Sunday. Yesterday. It sounded vaguely familiar now that I thought about it. The new teacher suddenly clears his throat, his expression unimpressed.

“Freddie, please go to your seat while I talk with your vater,”

  
Freddie seems fascinated by the foreign word, but he obediently holds up his arms until James leans down so the boy can kiss his cheek, then he trots away to his seat at a table with five other children. James watches him fondly before his attention is once more diverted to the teacher, and he repositions himself with his hands on the doorframe with a pleasant grin. Molly had always responded positively to the pose. Sadly the man before him does not seem as appreciative.  

“Mr Hunt, I noticed that during _Miss Williams'_ time as Freddie’s teacher he was consistently late to class. I cannot condone the same behaviour; it is disruptive to the other children to have you flinging yourself into my classroom at whatever hour you please. Registration was nearly an hour ago.”

James tries to listen, he really does, but whether it’s the adorableness of his overbite or the pink of his lips, James is too busy watching the man’s mouth to really pay much attention to his scolding.  “Mr Hunt, _Mr Hunt!_ ”

James blinks. “Please, call me James, and I didn’t catch your name?”

The man looks exasperated, but grudgingly replies with a curt “ _Lauda_.”

“And your first name, _Mr Lauda_?” he practically purrs, too quietly for any little ears to overhear. James has to contain a positively triumphant grin when he sees the pink tinge on the man’s cheeks and ear tips, despite the suddenly fierce scowl.      

“ _Dummkopf!_ ” the man mutters as he storms away. James lingers to glimpse the man’s arse, then he wiggles his fingers goodbye at Freddie and turns to saunter back down the corridor, grinning broadly all the while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The strain in the man’s voice doesn’t match up to the easy, cocksure man he’d encountered that morning, but the deep British drawl is unmistakable, and the distant wails of a distraught child in the background certainly tells Niki all he needs to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated at long last, and over 3x longer than the first chapter!

The day goes well for James. By three o’clock he’s collected his rambunctious son from nursery, all smiles and winks for the eternally unimpressed Mr Lauda watching the collection of children from the gate, and has Freddy bundled in the car and home by four.

After games, a bit of telly, and a session of food art on the table – which was James’ misguided hopes that Freddie would keep his spaghetti on the plate – he’s about to put his toddler to bed when, with a single sentence, he realises his day had apparently gone far too smoothly for some Higher Power’s liking.

“Daddy, where’s Hesky?” James stops in his tracks and looks at Freddie who’s stood in the doorway, his tiny forehead creased with confusion. A lost Hesky was definitely not a good sign.

“When did you last have him, champ?”

“I-I don’t know, can’t find him, what if-”

James rushes to hush the quickly despairing child.

“Hey hey, it’s ok we’ll find Hesky, we just have to have a look for him, let’s do that now shall we?” James smiles hopefully, jiggling Freddie’s little hands playfully in his own until he coaxes a smile. The child nods his head with a sniff and together they begin their search.

But Hesky was nowhere to be found. 

The shrill ring of the classroom phone cuts through the quiet, and Niki looks up from putting paperwork into his bag with a frown. He picks up the receiver and opens with a curt “Lauda speaking.”

He hears a muffled ‘Thank God’ before the person actually speaks. “Hello, it’s James. Hunt. Freddie’s dad.”

The strain in the man’s voice doesn’t match up to the easy, cocksure man he’d encountered that morning, but the deep British drawl is unmistakable, and the distant wails of a distraught child in the background certainly tells Niki all he needs to know.

“Look I’m sorry for phoning so late, but I’m having a bit of a crises, do you by any chance have a -”

“-Stuffed rabbit?” Niki finishes for him, reaching for the floppy, well-loved teddy sat on his desk. “White, big ears, blue bow, pink nose?”

“Yes, that’s the one!” James says in a rush. “Could I come pick it up, will you still be at the school?”

“I was actually about to leave. It is late, Mr. Hunt.”

Keeping the phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear, Niki secures the flap of his bag and pulls the strap onto his other shoulder. He’s about the bid the man good night out of courtesy when a last second plea stops him short.

“ _Please._ ”

And it’s truly ridiculous for a grown man to sound so desperate over a stuffed rabbit, but Niki still finds himself looking pensively at the toy on his desk . It’s the tense quiet from Hunt and Freddie’s still audible cries that eventually have Niki sighing and rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

“I have no desire to be in this classroom a minute longer. But as I am on my way home anyway, I will drop off the rabbit. Clearly it’s important it makes it home tonight.”

Niki hears a sigh of relief and makes a quick note of the address that follows. He only just hears the heartfelt ‘thank you’ before James hangs up.

  
\------------------------------

  
The door opens before Niki’s third knock, and he’s greeted by a haggard looking blond who still somehow manages to offer Niki a ridiculously charming smile.

Niki holds up the rabbit with a deadpan expression, and certainly doesn’t feel a flutter of satisfaction when James’ face lights up like Niki has just presented him with a Ferrari instead.

“Good god, I could kiss you!” James laughs, missing Niki’s startled expression in favour of calling over his shoulder to Freddie, who Niki realises is still crying in another room.

“Hey Champ, guess who’s come home?”

The crying stops and is replaced with rapid footsteps, then a blond head with teary eyes and a bright red nose pokes through the door. Freddie immediately claps eyes on the rabbit in his teacher’s grasp, and in between sniffles he erupts with a delighted gasp of “Hesky!” and bounds down the hallway into James’ extended arms.

Hoisting the boy onto his hip, James smiles dotingly down at Freddie as the child reaches out for his beloved teddy, which Niki dutifully hands over. Freddie crushes the rabbit to his chest and hides his face in the crook of James’ neck, coaxing a chuckle from the elder blond who gently jostles his son. “Where’s this shyness come from?” he asks teasingly. “What do you say to Mr.Lauda? He made sure Hesky got home safe.”

Freddie sniffs and peers at Niki with his father’s baby blue eyes and says with a quiet quiver, “T-thank you for b-bringing back Hesky, Mr Lauda.”

Niki’s horribly aware of James watching him with that annoying half-smile of his, so he pointedly focuses on Freddie. “You’re welcome, but make sure to take better care of…Hesky. I don’t think he would have liked sitting alone on my desk all night.” He says it without any of the standard bite he reserves for the parents, and Freddie shakes his head fiercely.

“No, he would be lonely!” he announces, and makes a show of hugging Hesky tighter as James grins into Freddie’s hair.

“Well now that we have Hesky, perhaps we can finally put you to bed.”

James steps to the side and gestures Niki in, who does somewhat reluctantly as James closes the door behind him. “I’ll just be a moment, his bed time was meant to be three hours ago.” His exaggeratedly pained expression has the corners of Niki’s mouth unconsciously twitching upwards.

With that James leaves Niki in the dimly lit hallway as he carries his already dozing two-year old upstairs. The only light comes from what Niki assumes is the living room, but even then it does little to reveal the details of the hallway as Niki glances around and shuffles awkwardly. He briefly toys with the idea of just leaving, but it doesn’t sit right, and the decision is taken from him when James reappears from upstairs.

His hair is slightly wild and he ruffles it as he smiles at Niki, “I’m really sorry to have to drag you out here, Freddie’s hit the tantrum stage and there’s no reasoning with him when Hesky’s concerned.”

“Yes, I can imagine,” Niki says with a wry smile, having had his fair share of experience with the terrible twos.

“Luckily he’s growing out of it…mostly,” James huffs with a grin. Niki nods, and James starts.

“Oh, erm, would you like to stay for dinner?”

Niki must have looked alarmed because the Brit suddenly ploughs on, and Niki is bemused to see the flawless charm he’d witnessed not twelve hours ago unravel before his eyes.

“Since you’re here, as a thank you, of course, for bringing back the rabbit. I mean, I probably wouldn’t be sleeping tonight if it weren’t for you so…you know, I’d like to, to thank you…” he finishes with a small cough and a sheepish smile. And Niki is taken aback by how boyish he looks, despite his obvious fatigue.

“I should be heading home…”

“Right! Right of course you probably have your own family to head back to,” James laughs, embarrassed. “I won’t keep you then, but thank you. Again.”

Niki sucks on his lower lip in a moment of indecisiveness, but with a quick glimpse at the flustered Brit, Niki makes up his mind. “Actually no, I have no one at home. Perhaps I can still…” he gestures wordlessly.

James perks up, “Of course. Make yourself at home,” he leads Niki to the living room and quickly clears away the crayons scattered across the coffee table.  “Can I get you any tea, coffee?”

“Coffee, black, thank you.” Niki replies as he shrugs off his coat and lays it over the back of the couch before taking a seat. He looks around the room as James leaves, and finds it to be fairly standard as far as family homes went. There was a box of toys in the corner by a small telly, and picture frames lined the walls.

Curiosity gets the better of Niki and he goes to investigate. They’re all pictures of Freddie at various ages, with James, with an elder couple Niki assumes are his grandparents, and a family picture which included Freddie’s aunts and uncles if the resemblance to James was anything to go by.  

“Dinner’s served.”

Niki turns quickly as James nudges the door open, balancing two plates in one hand and two cups in another, all while expertly stepping over any child-debris in his way. It’s one of the surest signs of parenthood Niki has ever seen. He takes his seat on the couch as his coffee is put down and accepts his plate, only to stare perplexed at its contents.

“Sorry, I haven’t had an adult meal in weeks. Parenthood I’m afraid,” James laughs as Niki inspects his plate of potato smiley faces and spaghetti hoops.

Niki smirks. “It beats burnt toast.”

They grin and tuck into their food, both ravenous from the late hour. But Niki can’t help casting furtive glances around the room.

“What is it?” Niki finds James watching him with interest, but the Austrian rolls his shoulder dismissively.

With his mouth now full, James prompts Niki with a wave of his fork.

“I noticed there wasn’t any…” he trails off, unsure how to express his observations.

“Feminine touches?” James offers easily. Niki nods.

“Also, there are no pictures of Freddie’s mother, I find this a bit unusual.”

If James is surprised by Niki’s candour he doesn’t show it, yet as the silence stretches Niki’s thinks he may have overstepped the mark. So he’s surprised when James suddenly asks, “You wouldn’t think I was father material from first impressions, would you?”

Niki lowers his fork back to the plate and thinks back to his first meeting with James; late and unrepentant, shirt open half way down his chest, shamelessly flirtatious with his son’s nursery teacher of all people. And that wasn’t even broaching the staff-room conversation between the female teachers, about ‘roguish and devilishly handsome James Hunt who they would ride longer than a finely-tuned Royal Enfield’. Apparently.

But then again, this was the same man who wasn’t a minute late for collection, and who got distressed over a stuffed rabbit for the sake of his son.

“No,” Niki admits at last. “Not until I knew better.”

James smiles at that, fleeting and sincere. “Well, I lived up to that impression before Freddie. I was the exemplar of the playboy lifestyle. I used to race Formula 3,” he puffs up at Niki’s impressed sound. “I took advantage of every perk that came with it. Drinking, drugs, ample partners,” he shrugs and ignores Niki’s less than impressed look at the admission.

“And after a winning race I met this lovely little thing. Unfortunately I was rather horrifically drunk and don’t remember much of the night itself. But we parted ways next morning, and then some months later…I woke up to Freddie on my doorstep.”

“She just left him there?” Niki’s face screws up in outrage. “Did you not try and find her?”

“There was no way. No explanation, no nothing. Just Freddie wrapped up in a blanket.”

“And you didn’t question if he was actually yours?” James eyebrows shoot up and Niki realises how harsh he sounded. He flushes and motions with his hand. “I mean, you just took in a child without questioning. That must have stopped your racing.”

“It did. And the resemblance is a bit more obvious now,” he laughs, reassuring Niki who smiles also. “But I figured mine or not, he would fare better with me than getting handed pillar to post in the system. So reckless philandering lifestyle suitably curtailed, here I am.”

James spreads his arms out with a grin, and Niki now properly looks at the man, the man whom upon first meeting he wouldn’t have entrusted with a goldfish, let alone a child. And yet, James now strikes him as nothing less than a father trying to do right by his son.

He puts his empty plate on top of James’ own and places his cup back on the table, signalling the inevitable end of the meal, and James feels a little sad as he takes the plate to the kitchen while Niki pulls on his coat.

He walks Niki to the door and holds it open for him as the Austrian steps into the chilly darkness, pausing on the step.

“Thank you. For dinner.”

“And thank you, Mr. Lauda, for bringing our beloved Hesky home safe,” he returns. “Have a good night.”

“Niki,” he sucks on his teeth and doesn’t understand his own apprehension. “You can call me Niki.”

The man’s grin is blinding. “Then thank you, and sweet dreams, Niki.”

James had reclaimed every ounce of his charm as he purred Niki’s name, and after staring at the closed door for several long seconds, Niki wonders what he’s gotten himself in to.


End file.
